format immediately announces to me that I’m watching a ‘movie,’” shares Trost, whose slew of indie festival hits includes The Disaster Artist, The Diary of a Teenage Girl, and Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile. “There is something about the scope, the focus, the texture, the flaws. You can create grand, sweeping images, or you can distill a small intimate moment into a wonderful cinematic experience. “I’ve used many different anamorphic lenses, from Panavision, Hawk, Cooke, Zeiss, Xtal Expres, Todd-AO, Kowa, and others,” Trost continues. “I’ve even used an old anamorphic projector lens that was adapted for shooting – sort of. I’m not interested in flawless edge-to-edge sharpness. So often the ‘weaknesses’ of a certain lens is the reason why I like it. I like character, so I’m always on the hunt for a different version of anamorphic lenses.” Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC (ICG Magazine April 2020), also shops different characteristics when she’s making an anamorphic decision. “I’ve used all different kinds: Cooke, Kowa, Todd-AO, Hawk, and Panavision anamorphics. Each set will have different artifacts that create a unique image. It’s all about squeezing and de-squeezing the image,” she relates. “One of the most interesting are the Xtal Expres,” adds Morgan. “I used them for Six Balloons, a movie shot mostly at night in downtown L.A. about a heroin addict. I wanted the practical lights to bleed into the image in an impressionistic way to help create the feeling of what it’s like to get high. For A Quiet Place 2, a nostalgic film, I went for the Panavision T Series, to create a classic look that followed on from the C Series used in A Quiet Place, but allowed us to shoot at T2.8 with good close focus. “We’ve used many different sets of anamorphic lenses on the TV series Legion,” Morgan continues. “On one episode directed by Ellen Kuras [ASC], we decided to use Hawk 74 lenses, as we wanted to give the lead actress’s backstory a softer vintage look. I’m looking forward to exploring the new anamorphics
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for large-format sensors. Modern optics give us the ability to shoot anamorphic with a wider aperture.” Recently, Markus Förderer, ASC, explored the Atlas Orion anamorphic lens for his Amazon project Bliss. Förderer says he created two distinct looks to give the audience “visual clues of where the characters are in the movie. The story starts gritty, bleak and ugly and transitions to the beautiful, vibrant Bliss-world,” he describes. “We chose Atlas Orion because they have beautiful anamorphic characteristics without showing too much distortion. The contrast between the Angénieux lenses for Bliss-world and the Atlas for the gritty bleak world created the feel we wanted. It’s something audiences can’t quite put their finger on, but it works on a subconscious level. I associate spherical lenses closer to the way we perceive the world with our eyes, whereas anamorphic lenses can create a dream-like quality.” Gavin Struthers, ASC, BSC, brings this anamorphic tale full circle. In preparing Superman and Lois, Struthers and director Lee Toland Krieger were looking for an anamorphic set “bursting with historical character,” Struthers describes. “Dunton’s Xtal Xpres offered what we were looking for. They’re packed with character, echoing the many movies they’ve been used on. The softer color reproduction and lower contrast meant less work achieving the look on set and minimal adjustment in the DI. This glass took us to within 90 percent of where we wanted to be. The final look of Superman and Lois is a testament to the partnership of those lenses, combined with Panavision’s DXL2/RED Monstro VV sensor.” While this journey through what has made anamorphic glass so beloved by so many filmmakers over the years was hardly comprehensive, it does support Joe Dunton’s oft-repeated claim that “once you see anamorphic, you’ll never go back.” As for Dunton, he’s got a brand-new anamorphic lens coming to market this year, the Compact Xtal Expres, that is – wait for it – designed for handheld and drones!